Growing up masculine: Rethinking the significance of adolescence in the making of masculinities

Abstract

Adolescence is not a fixed stage in a life-cycle, so much as a terrain of encounters between growing persons and the adult world. International research on youth shows the importance of a relational approach. Masculinities are constructions within a gender order; but gender orders are neither simple nor static. Projects of masculinity formation reflect social diversity and inequality. Developing bodies are re-interpreted and challenged in new practices, institutions such as the high school are encountered and negotiated, the state and the corporate economy are approached. Hegemonic definitions of masculinity exert strong pressure, yet multiple paths through adolescence are found by different groups of youth. The importance of adolescence in the making of masculinities lies both in the ways existing masculinities are appropriated and inhabited, and in the negotiation, and sometimes rejection of old patterns.